Studied by 43 PeopleTags & Description
Parallelism
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
Emphasizes similarities and connections.
Isocolon
Use of parallel elements similar not only in structure, as in parallelism, but in length (same number of words or even syllables).
Addition of symmetry of length to similarity of structure contributes to the rhythm of sentences.
Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure.
Emphasizes dissimilarities and contraries; produces the quality of an aphorism.
Parenthesis
Insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence.
Allows the author's voice to be heard commenting or editorializing, thereby charging the statement with emotion.
Ellipse
Deliberate omission of a word or of words which are readily implied by the context.
An artful and arresting means of securing economy of expression.
Asyndeton
Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses.
Produces a hurried rhythm in the sentence.
Polysyndeton
The opposite of asyndeton: the deliberate use of many conjunctions.
Suggests flow or continuity in some instances, special emphasis in others.
Anaphora
Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginnings of successive clauses. -Always used deliberately, this scheme helps to establish a marked rhythm and often produces string emotional effect.
Epistrophe
Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses.
Sets up a pronounced rhythm and secures a special emphasis.
Epanalepsis
repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause.
Gives language an appearance of emotional spontaneity.
Anadiplosis
Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.
Climax
Arrangement of words, phrases or clauses in an order of increasing importance.
Antimetabole
Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.
Produces the impressive turn of phrase typical of an aphorism.
Chiasmus
Reversal of grammatical structure in successive phrases or clauses (literally, "the criss-cross).
Like antimetabole, but without the repetition.
Synechdoche
A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole.
Metonymy
Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant.
Antanaclasis (pun)
Repetition of a word in two different senses.
Periphrasis
Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name.
Apostrophe
Addressing an absent person or a personified abstraction. Apostrophe imbues its subject with an emotional charge as personification does.
Litotes
Deliberate use of understatement, not to deceive someone but to enhance the impressiveness of what is stated.
Rhetorical Question
Asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely. Rhetorical questions can be an effective persuasive device, subtly influencing the kind of response one wants to get from an audience, and are often more effective as a persuasive device than is a direct assertion.
Irony
Use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word. Irony must be used with great caution: if the speaker misjudges the intelligence of her audience, she may find that her audience takes her words in their ostensible sense rather than in the intended opposite sense.
Paradox
An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth. paradox is like oxymoron in that both are built on contradictories, but paradox may not be a trope at all, because it involves not so much a "turn" of meaning in juxtaposed words as a "turn" of meaning in the whole statement.